1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hair clip and, more particularly, to an ornamental hair clip for retaining hair by and between two members by a spring force.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are many kinds of hair clips known in the art, as disclosed for example in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication Nos. S45(1970)-3321, S50(1975)-47698, S50(1975)-151495, S57(1982)-55403 and S61(1986)-174504. These prior art hair clips generally include an ornamental cover, a base plate fixed to the ornamental cover, a downwardly curved and band-shaped spring board which has both of its ends fixed to the base plate, and a band-shaped hair retainer operably disposed outside the spring board. The hair retainer has a fixed end pivoted to a pair of brackets protruding from one end of the base plate, and also has a movable end with an engaging part which is releasably latched to a pair of hooks provided at the other end of the base plate.
These prior art hair clips retain hair by and between the spring board and the hair retainer, with the engaging part thereof being held in place by the hooks. When the hairs are to be released from the clip, the movable end of the hair retainer is unlatched from the base plate by pressing ledges towards each other, which ledges are integral with the hooks and protrude from the base plate.
Thus, the unlatching operation of those conventional hair clips is done by gripping the pair of ledges underneath the ornamental cover. However, the insertion of the user's fingers underneath the ornamental cover is not easy because the cover is in close contact with the user's head. Especially when the ornamental cover is relatively large, the hair release becomes more difficult because of a large distance between the periphery of the cover and the ledges.
In order to resolve this problem, the present applicant previously proposed a novel type of hair clip as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,919,155. This prior hair clip includes a release mechanism which causes the hooking arms to close each other to unlatch the hair retainer when the hair retainer is pressed towards the base plate.
In detail, the hair clip in accordance with the preceding proposal includes a base plate attached to an ornamental cover and a pair of brackets at one end and a pair of ledges at the other end, and a hair retainer rotatably connected to the brackets at its fixed end. The hair retainer has an engaging portion at its other movable end. The engaging portion includes a central dented part and a pair of arched bridge parts at opposite sides of the dented part. The hair clip further includes a ring placed between the central dented part and the arched bridge parts. The ring has a central opening for allowing the leg portions of the hooking arms to fit in when they overlap with each other for unlatching.
In use, this hair clip having the ring as a releaser can be removed from the user's hairs, for example, by pressing one end of the ornamental cover towards the user's head and then releasing the pressing state.
When releasing the hair clip, the user no longer needs to insert his or her fingers underneath the ornamental cover, contrary to the various prior art hair retainers, so as to operate the ledges. Instead of doing so, the user who wants to remove the hair clip may simply press an end of the ornamental cover. Thus, the hair clip can be removed very easily even if its ornamental cover is considerably large.
The hair clip according to the preceding proposal has, however, proved somewhat problematic from the following points of view.
The ring serving as the hair releaser has a central opening into which the overlapped pair of hooking arms are forcibly inserted. Therefore, the ring must be of a tenacity sufficient to withstand a strong outward radial force which the forcibly fitted arms impart to the ring.
Since the arms are strongly urged against the inner peripheral wall of the central opening of the ring, the ring must also be highly resistant to abrasion. Further, the ring must not cause an intensive friction that will hinder the arms from smoothly fitting in the central opening. Thus, the ring has to be made of a stiff material meeting all of the mentioned requirements, with the inner periphery of its central opening being nevertheless machined to have a less frictional finished surface. This raises the manufacture cost of such a ring.
It is noted that the ring, which is disposed between the central dented part and the opposite bridge parts both formed at the movable end of the hair retainer, is capable of moving up and down. Therefore, a means for preventing the ring from slipping off is necessary. This protecting means may comprise a pair of parallel guide posts extending from opposite longitudinal ends of the dented part. Correspondingly, slots are formed on the periphery of the ring so as to engage with the respective guide posts.
Such a protecting means will, however, complicate the structure of the ring and hair retainer. The manufacture thereof, in particular, the work for mounting the ring to the retainer, is not made easy but is required to be considerably intricate so as to raise production cost.
Other hooking tip ends of the pair of overlapping arms are forced to rub the inner periphery of the central opening of the ring whenever the retainer is released. Thus, the tip ends are likely to be worn out soon so that the hair clip as a whole can become less durable.